Bin Laden semantics

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Newspapers announcing the death of accused 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden are seen at a newsstand outside the World Trade Center site May 2, 2011 in New York City. Bin Laden was killed in an operation by U.S. Navy Seals in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Newspapers announcing the death of accused 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden are seen at a newsstand outside the World Trade Center site May 2, 2011 in New York City. Bin Laden was killed in an operation by U.S. Navy Seals in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The main edition of the May 3 Chicago Tribune carried the headline, "How the U.S. got bin Laden." The tabloid edition, with a smaller headline space, read "How they got bin Laden." On May 4, the New York Times site asked "How should we react?" above a side-by-side debate on the street celebrations prompted by bin Laden's death.

Stars and Stripes newspaper in Afghanistan, whose staff and readership is largely military personnel, asked on its May 4 cover, "Now what? Can we stop worrying? Can we stop fighting?" The New York Post avoided the we/they conundrum altogether, opting for "Got him!" on their May 2 editions.

We. They. Are they interchangeable? Clearly editors are sensitive to the appearance of credit taking. No one sitting in a cushy, climate-controlled cubicle wants the pat on the back for which "How we got bin Laden" seems to be begging. But is that what "we" does? Or can "we" mean, simply, "Americans"?

Bill Maher, whose weekly HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher" includes a segment titled "New rules," had this to say on Friday: "New rule: Stop saying 'we' got Osama. We didn't do anything. We were watching 'Celebrity Apprentice' and eating Funyuns in our sweatpants."

But our casual conversations (and tweets and Facebook postings) point to a more conflicted take on the linguistics at play.

"It's times like these that really build up our collective identity," says Homa Sabet Tavangar, author of "Growing Up Global" (Ballantine Books). "I think many people are feeling this collective global citizenry at the same time that we feel very American. We don't want to take credit for (killing bin Laden). We're not Navy Seals, but we're American and Americans got him."

Tavangar says if we're feeling conflicted about whether to use the collective "we" or the more other-focused "they," it's because of America's multiculturalism.

"It's almost a testimony, an expression that we wear a lot of hats," says Tavangar, who has lived in the Middle East, Africa, South America and now resides outside Philadelphia with her husband and three daughters. "I am an American. I'm also Iranian by heritage, even though I'm not even allowed to enter that country right now because of persecution there. But I still have some identikit with it. I'm a mother. I'm a volunteer. I'm a writer. I'm a reader. The multiple hats and multiple identities we all have brings the country's focus together and creates a sense of collective consciousness. That kind of goes to the 'we' versus the 'they.'"

And even Maher acknowledged the Navy Seals didn't act alone, exactly.

"SEAL Team Six did the killing, with money we borrowed from Beijing, that our grandchildren will have to pay back," he said during his segment. "So, it was a joint Navy SEALS/People's Bank of China/grandchildren operation."